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June 20, 2018

Solar Industries India partners Eurenco for major artillery tender

On Tuesday, Solar Industries India Ltd (hereafter Solar), one of India’s
fastest growing companies in defence manufacturing, announced a
strategic tie-up with Eurenco, the European leader in high-energy
materials for explosives and propellant technologies.

Announcing
the partnership at the EUROSATORY 2018 defence exhibition near Paris,
the two firms said they would bid jointly for a forthcoming
multi-billion dollar Indian tender to manufacture artillery propellants –
called the bi-modular charge system (BMCS).

“We have built a
strong relationship with Eurenco and are working on a collaborative
approach to set up infrastructure facilities under the 'Make in India'
programme of the Government of India to fulfill the needs of the Indian
Army,” said Solar’s chief executive, Manish Nuwal.

The
Nagpur-headquartered Solar, India’s largest manufacturer and exporter of
explosives and initiating systems, is highly regarded by the defence
ministry. In January, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman handed it
technology to manufacture solid propellant boosters for the Indo-Russian
BrahMos cruise missile –– a favour normally bestowed only on defence
public sector undertakings (DPSUs).

Solar’s ambitious growth
plans in the defence sector rest on the military’s increasing
requirement of ammunition and propellants. Besides needing to make up a
large shortfall in war reserve ammunition stocks, the military requires
warhead explosives and propellants for indigenous weaponry like the
Pinaka rocket launcher, the Akash, Nag, Astra, BrahMos and LR-SAM
missiles, indigenous artillery guns like the Dhanush and the Advanced
Towed Artillery Gun System (ATAGS), and a range of new artillery gun
systems entering service, such as the M777 ultra-light Howitzer.

India
currently imports 35 solid propellant boosters annually for the BrahMos
cruise missile. In addition, the IAF will be inducting large numbers of
BrahMos as an air-launched cruise mssile (ALCM), mounted on the
Sukhoi-30MKI fighter. Solar would benefit directly from these orders.

In
July 2016, Eurencoand Solar signed a preliminary agreement to “evaluate
various cooperation options”. On Tuesday, that was translated into a
“strategic partnership” for supplying “propellants, bombs, ammunition
filling and modular charges technologies under the ‘Make in India’
policy for the private sector”, according to a Solar press release.

“This
partnership agreement is at the heart of our strategy in India which is
today one of the key markets that we aim for as part of our global
export policy in Asia”, said Eurenco chief Dominique Guillet.

Solar
said on Tuesday it is “willing to build dedicated infrastructure
facilities with the technical assistance of Eurenco on its explosives
and propellant facilities in Nagpur, India”.

Besides Nagpur,
Solar manufactures at 24 locations in India and six locations abroad –
in South Africa, Turkey, Zambia, Nigeria, Australia and Ghana – for a
significant portfolio of American and European customers.

Since
it was established in 1995, Solar has built facilities to produce
sophisticated, military-grade explosives such as HMX, RDX and TNT. Solar
also builds composite propellants, rockets, warheads, mines, tank
ammunition, bombs and electronic fuses.